Welcome! This is a forum for discussing Texas Tech's upcoming participation in World Usability Day. Participants from the on site and online Ph.D. programs in Technical Communication and Rhetoric are using this blog to plan our activity and exchange ideas.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
World Usability Day: Getting Started
It's time to get things started. Our panel discussion (if this format works for everyone) will focus on how to teach usability in an online setting. Remember, you can use this blog to set up the session and to discuss ideas. Have at it!
Thinking about how to teach usability online, I think we first need to identify what we want students to take away from usability. For example, is it really important to learn how to set up cameras, mikes, etc. Or is the understanding that how you set up these things influences one's data collection. If we want them to learn how to set stuff up, obviously we're going to have to insist that students do their own usability test at their site, probably on a common product. On the other hand, just to demonstrate the differences in data collection, we might make a series of videos that focus on keystrokes, participant expressions, the participant using the screen, audio etc. and have them join a team conducting a usability test in Lubbock. Deciding if distance learners can join an onsite team of usability testers or if a distance team can share testing or if everyone needs to conduct their own testing depends on identifying the skills that we think are most important to learn. So what are those?
"Deciding if distance learners can join an onsite team of usability testers or if a distance team can share testing or if everyone needs to conduct their own testing depends on identifying the skills that we think are most important to learn. So what are those?"
Right. Kendall's hit the nail on the head. I have to make a disclaimer here: I haven't done any reading on usability since I took the class in May of 2005, so if techniques and approaches have changed. . .your mileage may vary.
Having said that, I think it's the rhetorical interrogation--the asking WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, HOW, and all that other stuff--that counts. In this sense, you could teach a document design course using a usability approach. Students could interrogate (or simply "test"--"interrogate" sounds too academ-icky) print and online documents singly or in groups. That part seems to be not much of a challenge.
Then, for a final project, they could design a site, flyer, whatever, and do a limited test with a select audience.
So my short answer is that if we identify key usability skills in common with document design skills (doesn't have to be a complete match) then you could have an online doc design class which incorporates usability testing.
So now I have to ask myself if this is a fine idea for undergrads (feels OK to me) as well as for grads (makes me uneasy).
4 comments:
Thinking about how to teach usability online, I think we first need to identify what we want students to take away from usability. For example, is it really important to learn how to set up cameras, mikes, etc. Or is the understanding that how you set up these things influences one's data collection. If we want them to learn how to set stuff up, obviously we're going to have to insist that students do their own usability test at their site, probably on a common product. On the other hand, just to demonstrate the differences in data collection, we might make a series of videos that focus on keystrokes, participant expressions, the participant using the screen, audio etc. and have them join a team conducting a usability test in Lubbock. Deciding if distance learners can join an onsite team of usability testers or if a distance team can share testing or if everyone needs to conduct their own testing depends on identifying the skills that we think are most important to learn. So what are those?
"Deciding if distance learners can join an onsite team of usability testers or if a distance team can share testing or if everyone needs to conduct their own testing depends on identifying the skills that we think are most important to learn. So what are those?"
Right. Kendall's hit the nail on the head. I have to make a disclaimer here: I haven't done any reading on usability since I took the class in May of 2005, so if techniques and approaches have changed. . .your mileage may vary.
Having said that, I think it's the rhetorical interrogation--the asking WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, HOW, and all that other stuff--that counts. In this sense, you could teach a document design course using a usability approach. Students could interrogate (or simply "test"--"interrogate" sounds too academ-icky) print and online documents singly or in groups. That part seems to be not much of a challenge.
Then, for a final project, they could design a site, flyer, whatever, and do a limited test with a select audience.
So my short answer is that if we identify key usability skills in common with document design skills (doesn't have to be a complete match) then you could have an online doc design class which incorporates usability testing.
So now I have to ask myself if this is a fine idea for undergrads (feels OK to me) as well as for grads (makes me uneasy).
Anybody else?
You each have permission to post, too (not just comment), so feel free to start new threads where you think it's appropriate.
So now I have to ask myself if this is a fine idea for undergrads (feels OK to me) as well as for grads (makes me uneasy).
Why does using this approach for grads make you uneasy? Too basic?
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